- A player's ball lies on the putting green in 2. The player marks and lifts their ball. The player replaces their ball at another player's nearby ball-marker and misses the putt. Another player tells the player that they played from the wrong ball-marker. The player replaces the ball at the correct marker and holes the putt. What is the player's score for the hole?

A.      4
B.       6
C.       8

Rules Answer 01-28-2023

14.7b How to Complete a Hole after Playing from Wrong Place in Stroke Play

(1) Player Must Decide Whether to Play Out Hole with Ball Played from Wrong Place or to Correct the Mistake by Playing from Right Place. What a player does next depends on whether it was a serious breach - that is, whether the player could have gained a significant advantage by playing from a wrong place:

·        Not a Serious Breach. The player must play out the hole with the ball played from a wrong place, without correcting the mistake.

·        Serious Breach.

o   The player must correct the mistake by playing out the hole with a ball played from a right place under the Rules.

o   If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.

·        What to Do If Uncertain Whether Breach Is Serious. The player should play out the hole with both the ball played from a wrong place and a second ball played from a right place under the Rules.

As we can determine, the complicated question when a player has played from a wrong spot is if a serious breach has been committed when playing from the wrong location. To determine this, we must first understand what a Serious Breach constitutes.

Serious Breach Definition

In stroke play, when playing from a wrong place could give the player a significant advantage compared to the stroke to be made from the right place.

In making this comparison to decide if there was a serious breach, the factors to be taken into account include:

·        The difficulty of the stroke,

·        The distance of the ball from the hole,

·        The effect of obstacles on the line of play, and

·        The conditions affecting the stroke.

The concept of a serious breach does not apply in match play, because a player loses the hole if he or she plays from a wrong place.

When the player played the ball from the wrong location the player receives a wrong place penalty (2 strokes), but it was not a serious breach. The player should have continued from the ball's current location, finishing the hole. When the played moved the ball to a new location, to correct what he presumed was a serious breech, the player receives another wrong place penalty (2 strokes).

Knowing this we can now determine that this week’s answer is C, as the player took 4 talent strokes and 4 penalty strokes.

If you find yourself in this type of situation its important to know that when in doubt as how to proceed, you should play out the hole with both the ball played from a wrong place and a second ball played from a right place to protect yourself under the Rules.